Chapter Twenty-Five
Tristan
I looked at the pictures lining my wall. They were all pictures of the resorts and hotels that my father had opened before I took over. The last couple of pictures depicted my own projects. They were smaller, modest hotels compared with my father’s, but I had opened them on my own, and for that, I was proud.
Still, opening a new hotel was never easy, and my first few attempts had not gone smoothly. Which was why I was sitting in my office, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Everything had been going so well lately that I felt as though something had to give soon. I wondered if I was simply projecting my fears about my relationship with Molly onto my career.
I thought about the last few weeks I’d spent with Molly. I had discovered so much more about her. I already knew she was passionate, kind, and intelligent. But I also discovered that she was decisive, emotional, and fiery. I realized that our opinions about film and art didn’t always match up, and when that happened, Molly would fight to the death to defend her point. She was so good at it that half the time, I found myself convinced. She was persuasive, but she could also be diffident. Just when I thought I had figured her out, she surprised me by revealing another layer of her character that I was ignorant of.
There were days when everything felt perfect. There were days when Molly was the only person I wanted to be with. She got me; she understood my job and its demands. She never got mad if I missed a dinner date, or disappeared right after sex, or could barely stand still long enough to ask her how her day was. She took everything in her stride. She seemed to enjoy working, and that, too, was attractive to me.
The flip side of the coin was my fear. The work had still not slowed down. I still had investors I needed to answer to, standards that needed to be maintained, and a chain of other enterprises that needed supervision. Just when I felt as though I were getting my head above water, something came up that pulled me under again. I had been meaning to take Molly back to our private island for a small sojourn, but I’d never managed to find the time after our first visit.
Some days, I was scared Molly was getting bored with our relationship. Other days, I was scared that I was getting bored with the relationship. Some days, I was simply too tired to be scared about anything. All I knew was that it felt nice to crawl into bed, knowing that Molly was in it, sleeping soundly.
On a whim, I picked up my phone and dialed in Jason’s number. He answered almost immediately, and the sound of his voice made me instantly regret calling him.
“Tristan!” Jason said breathlessly. “Long time, man.”
“You sound like you’re going someplace?”
“I’ve heading towards a meeting that’s on the other side of this damn building,” he replied. “So I can’t chat for long.”
“I can call back later?”
“No, no,” he said quickly. “I want to hear how things are going.”
“Uh…things are going great,” I said.
I knew I should have told him about Molly and me weeks ago, but I always managed to find an excuse at the last minute.
“Molly told me she’s loving the new job.”
“Oh, you’ve talked to Molly recently, have you?”
“A couple of days ago,” he confirmed.
“And what did she say?”
“Uh…she told me she’s loving the new job,” he repeated, sounding a little surprised by my question. “I’m sure you know that, given you’re her boss and everything.”
It was obvious that Molly hadn’t told her brother about us. “I don’t see myself as her boss,” I said quickly, avoiding bringing up the topic.
“Even though you are?”
“As far as I’m concerned, she’s working with me, not for me,” I said.
“Whatever you say,” Jason said distractedly. “Did you call to say something specific, bro, or was this just a check in?”
It was my opening, the perfect opportunity to come clean about my relationship with his sister and yet, I couldn’t do it. I was overcome with this inexplicable sense of fear.
Once I told Jason, it would be real. There would be no going back.
It was an irrational fear. Whether Jason knew or not didn’t make our relationship any less real. But sometimes it felt like we lived in a little bubble in Hawaii. It was easy to forget that the same rules applied everywhere else, too.
“I just called to check in,” I said lamely.
“Awesome, keep me posted, okay?” Jason said. “I want to know about the resort. It’s just—”
“You’re busy,” I said, finishing the sentence for him. “Say no more. We’ll talk later.”
Once we had hung up, I sighed in disappointment. It was silly of me to feel so nervous about Molly. It was just that I’d never been in a relationship like this before. It made me feel weaker and stronger at the same time, and sometimes I wasn’t sure if I liked that. I looked at the pictures on my wall and realized that there were no personal images there.
My office was cold and business-like, there was nothing personal or warm or intimate about it. Even my desk didn’t have any pictures that we remotely familial. I wondered if I was turning out just like my father. Before he had been diagnosed, he had practically lived in his office. The difference was that he had lost the woman he claimed to love, and I had just found the woman I believed I loved.
I was trying to sort out my own fragmented thoughts when Ben walked through the door. I could tell instantly from the expression on his face that he wasn’t bringing good news.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, steeling myself for the news. I knew it would only be a matter of time before the other shoe dropped.
“We have a situation,” he started.
I didn’t like the sound of that. “How bad is it?”
“It can be controlled,” he said. “But it has to be dealt with fast…”
“What happened?”
“One of our guests has come forward with a complaint.”
“A complaint?” I repeated. “Oh, well, we were bound to have a complaint sooner or later. That’s not so bad; I thought it was going to be terrible—”
“He’s accused one of the staff of theft,” Ben cut in.
Immediately I fell silent. Theft was a big accusation, and it wouldn’t bode well for the resort’s reputation if this got out there. The fact that we had just opened made us vulnerable, and bad publicity could very easily break us.
“Fuck,” I breathed.
“Yeah,” he replied.
I groaned and stood up. “What’s he claiming has been stolen?”
“A diamond choker,” he replied. “Apparently, it’s close to a million dollars.”
“Are you fucking serious?” I demanded. “The guy’s brought a diamond choker on vacation with him?”
“He’s claiming to have bought it for his wife,” he said. “For their wedding anniversary.”
“Fuck,” I said again. “This is a nightmare.”
“I’ve convinced him not to call the police,” he said.
“Good.”
“But I don’t know how long he’ll keep to that,” Ben said quickly. “I spoke to him just before coming up here. He looks like he wants to make trouble.”
“If word of this gets out, we’re not going to fare too well,” I said. “We’re a fledgling resort; we can’t afford any bad press.”
“How are we supposed to calm the guy down?”
“Offer him free room and board for…a week?”
Ben looked at me incredulously. “He’s going to laugh at that offer.”
“What would you suggest I do?” I demanded.
“Prove him wrong.”
“Excuse me?”
“Prove that the necklace wasn’t stolen,” Ben said. “Prove that he or his wife simply…misplaced it.”
“Then it’ll be his word against mine,” I pointed out. “Which is only going to piss this guy off—if it becomes a he said, she said situation we’re definitely going to be looking at bad press. We’re going to have to handle this quietly.”
“But I doubt that’ll work for long,” Ben said. “This guy looks like a complete asshole. I think I’ve mentioned him to you once before actually.”
“Who?” I asked, trying to remember.
“Mr. Beaumont?”
I frowned. “The name sounds vaguely familiar,” I nodded. “Why did you mention him to me?”
“It was the day that the Japanese delegation came in,” Ben told me. “I got here late, remember? Mr. Beaumont was trying to grope one of the staff, a young waitress named Nakoma, and I was handling it?”
“Fuck, yes,” I nodded, remembering hearing about it from Ben. “This is the same guy?”
“The very same,” he nodded.
“And do you believe him?”
“I don’t know one way or the other,” he said, with a shrug. “Just because he’s a pervert and a cad doesn’t necessarily mean he’s also a liar.”
“Funny, I would argue that he is,” I said. “Especially considering he has a wife. You mentioned she was aware of the theft, didn’t you?”
“She’s the one who realized the choker was missing in the first place,” Ben said. “She’s demanding the immediate dismissal of the employee she’s accusing.”
“Wait, she suspects someone specific?” I asked.
“She does,” Ben nodded. “And, she looks like she’s out for blood. They both do. In fact…”
“In fact what?”
“Well, I spoke to both of them this morning,” Ben said. “It actually sounded like they would both be satisfied if the person they’re accusing was fired immediately.”
I frowned. “And what?” I asked. “They would just forget about this choker that’s allegedly worth close to a million dollars?”
“It would seem that way,” he said.
“I don’t buy that,” I said. “There’s something wrong with this picture. If you lost an expensive piece of jewelry, would you just walk away without doing your best to retrieve it?”
“So, they’re lying about the worth of the choker,” Ben said. “It wouldn’t be the first time a guest has overvalued an item that they’ve lost. They’re probably trying to get a compensation package from us and need to drive up the price a little bit more so that they can cash in later… Not that they would need the money or anything, but it’s better than nothing.”
“Is that what you think they’re doing?” I asked uncertainly.
“What else would they be doing?” he asked. “The Beaumonts are wealthy—why would they fake a theft? I’m guessing they really did lose a piece of jewelry. They probably don’t care about it very much, but they’re going to milk it for all it’s worth.”
I frowned. “Has Molly been made aware of the situation?”
“She has,” Ben nodded.
“Good,” I said. “She’s the best person to handle it.”
He nodded. “She’s good in a crisis.”
“By the way,” I said, realizing that I hadn’t asked the most important question yet. “Who are the Beaumonts accusing of stealing this choker?”
Ben’s face soured a little and he looked slightly uncomfortable. “Alani Kama. She’s one of the assistant managers.”
“Alani Kama?” I repeated. “As in…Molly’s friend?”
Ben sighed. “That’s the one.”